Editing Galba (section)

==Origins and family life==
[[File:Roman emperor Galba, Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities, Stockholm (20) (35867773310) edited.jpg|thumb|Bust in the [[Nationalmuseum]] of [[Sweden]] labelled as Galba. Probably a late Republican portrait.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gammal man, kallad Galba. Porträtthuvud från sen republikansk tid |trans-title=Old man, called Galba. Portrait head from the late republican era |url=https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=33258&viewType=detailView |access-date= |website=[[Nationalmuseum]].se}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Slive |first=Seymour |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUejDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82 |title=Rembrandt Drawings |date=2019 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-636-2 |pages=160–164 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Benesch |first=Otto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGdQAAAAMAAJ |title=The Drawings of Rembrandt |date=1955 |publisher=Phaidon Press|quote=The shape of the cranium of the Stockholm bust is so different from that of the drawing — bulging and protruding in the Stockholm bust, receding and flattened in the [[:File:Rembrandt Bust of the Emperor Galba.jpg|Rembrandt drawing]] — that the identification, in spite of the similarity of the features, may be questioned.|author-link=Otto Benesch}}</ref>]]
Galba was not related to any of the emperors of the [[Julio-Claudian dynasty]], but he was a member of a distinguished noble family. The origin of the cognomen Galba is uncertain. [[Suetonius]] offers a number of possible explanations; the first member of the [[Sulpicia gens|gens Sulpicia]] to bear the name might have gotten the name from the term ''galba'', which the Romans used to describe the [[Gauls]], or after an insect called ''galbae''.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=3.1|}} [[Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus|One of Galba's ancestors]] had been consul in 200 BC, and [[Servius Sulpicius Galba (consul 144 BC)|another of his ancestors]] was consul in 144 BC; the later emperor's [[Gaius Sulpicius Galba (consul 5 BC)|father]] and [[Gaius Sulpicius Galba (consul AD 22)|brother]], both named Gaius, would hold the office in 5 BC and AD 22 respectively.{{sfn|Greenhalgh|1975|p=11}}{{sfn|Morgan|2006|pp=31&ndash;32}}<!--Note: Greenhalgh mistakes Galba's father as consul for 22.--> 
Galba's grandfather was a historian and his son was a barrister whose first marriage was to [[Mummia Achaica]], granddaughter of [[Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus|Quintus Lutatius Catulus]] and great-granddaughter of [[Lucius Mummius Achaicus]];{{sfn|Greenhalgh|1975|p=11}} Galba prided himself on his descent from his great-grandfather Catulus. According to Suetonius, he fabricated a [[genealogy]] of paternal descent from the god [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and maternal descent from the legendary [[Pasiphaë]], wife of [[Minos]].{{sfn|Morgan|2006|pp=31–32}} Reportedly, Galba was distantly related to [[Empress Livia|Livia]]<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Galba*.html Suetonius Life of Galba Chapter 23]</ref> to whom he had much respect and in turn by whom he was advanced in his career; in her will she left him fifty million [[Sestertius|sesterces]]; Emperor Tiberius however cheated Galba by reducing the amount to five hundred thousand sesterces and never even paid Galba the reduced amount.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Galba*.html Suetonius Life of Galba Chapter 3]</ref>

Servius Sulpicius Galba was born near [[Terracina]] on 24 December 3 BC.{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=4.1., in the year of the consulship of [[Lucius Cornelius Lentulus (consul 3 BC)|Cornelius Lentulus]] and [[Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus|Messalla Messallinus]]. This information is later contradicted by the statement that he died "in the seventy-third year of his age", which would place his birth in 5 BC. This number is repeated by [[Tacitus]] in [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Histories/1A*.html ''Histories'' 1.49.]|}} His elder brother Gaius fled from Rome and committed suicide because the emperor [[Tiberius]] would not allow him to control a [[Roman province]]. [[Livia Ocellina]] became the second wife of Galba's father, whom she may have married because of his wealth; he was short and [[hunchback]]ed. Ocellina adopted Galba, and he took the name "Lucius Livius Ocella Sulpicius Galba", although he probably kept his original name in unofficial context, as evidenced by the fact that he reverted to it upon his accession as emperor.{{sfn|Morgan|2006|pp=32–33}} Galba preferred males over females in terms of sexual attraction;{{sfn|Greenhalgh|1975|p=11}} according to Suetonius, he "preferred full-grown, strong men".{{sfn|Suetonius|loc=22|}} Nevertheless, he married a woman named [[Aemilia Lepida]] and had two sons.{{sfn|Lendering|2006}} Aemilia and their sons died during the early years of the reign of [[Claudius]] (r. 41–54). Galba would remain a widower for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Morgan|2006|p=32}}